


Subtle Changes

by mooniemurphy



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: I don't know, Leo Snart is Everything Good in the World, Leo and Mick Talk, M/M, Past Mick Rory/Leonard Snart, That's it, that's the story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-04
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2019-02-28 05:26:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13264647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mooniemurphy/pseuds/mooniemurphy





	Subtle Changes

It takes Leo Snart and Mick Rory a long time to get used to the other’s presence on the Waverider. They both have other versions of each other that they know, or knew, in the past, and the versions that they have now are nothing like the versions they had before. Leo had loved and adored his Mick, his bravery, his strength, and his sense of humor, and this Mick has all of those things, presenting themselves in very different ways. He loves and adores this Mick, too, but this Mick isn’t so open with his affection. This Mick is harder and gruff and violent and volatile, but Leo doesn’t like him any less for it.

It’s strange, and he can’t deny that, but Leo likes it. He likes the Waverider, he likes the team. He has a particular fondness for Sara Lance and Ray Palmer, both of whom seem a little surprised by it, which makes him wonder about the Leonard Snart that they knew. He tries to ask Sara about it, about their Leo, about what he meant to them and the man that he was, the things he did, but she shuts him down instantly with a look that reminds him very much of Lisa, so he backs off and proceeds to not ask her anything. 

Leo asks Ray, too. This Ray, Ray Palmer, reminds him a little of his Ray back home, his would-be husband, were that legal in their home, who is not Ray Palmer but is also as kind and open-hearted, and it’s nice to have someone, even if it makes his heart ache. He asks Ray Palmer why he stares at Leo with wide-eyed shock whenever, god forbid, Leo says something nice, or even so much as smiles. Ray Palmer laughs, but he doesn’t answer, and Leo feels disheartened at it. What did Leonard Snart mean to them, he wonders, that none of them want to talk about him.

He’d ask Zari or Amaya or Nate, but they all claim to have never known ‘their Leonard’, and he never had a chance to ask Jax.

Which leaves Mick, and that probably leaves him open to getting punched in the face or something else, but he’s morbidly curious. He only just hopes that perhaps Mick won’t actually set him on fire, but then, it might be worth the risk. So he finds himself sitting by Mick at the table in the kitchen of the Waverider, passing Mick a beer as a sort of peace offering. Mick grunts, but he takes it, and that’s invitation enough.

“I have a question,” Leo begins peacefully, and Mick huffs a breath that comes off a little annoyed, but Leo’s become used to that in his brief time on the Waverider, so he proceeds to ignore it.

“What?”

“The Leonard Snart on your earth, what was he like? Clearly we aren’t alike. I’ve gathered as much from the looks your friends give me when I talk. I’m curious.”

Mick goes tense, Leo can see it in his body, in the way his hands clench. His knuckles go white, they’re that tight on the beer bottle. “He was a dick,” Mick replies bluntly, and Leo’s eyebrows shoot up. Oh. “He was an asshole, he was stubborn, and he was a thief. Damn good one. But he was loyal, never turned his back on his crew, and he was a good man. A hero. We were partners.”

“Partners, or…” Leo trails off, leaving the question open-ended, for Mick to fill in the blanks, but Mick knows what he means. Or, he hopes Mick knows what he means, but maybe it wasn’t like that on this Earth. There’s no way Leo could possibly know.

Mick falls silent for a few long moments, and Leo wonders internally if he’s going to get punched for the question. It seems like something Mick would do, this Mick, with his temper that burns like a raging wildfire. Mick sighs heavily and then pulls a chain out from under his shirt. Dangling from it is a gold band, simple, but unmistakable in what it means.

“Partner,” Mick answers finally, and Leo nods. That says enough. 

Silence falls, Mick drinking and Leo tapping his fingers against the table absentmindedly. It doesn’t answer all of his questions about Leonard Snart of Earth 1, but it answers some of his questions about Mick Rory of Earth 1, and why everyone seems to find Leo’s presence here so strange. He doesn’t know how Leonard Snart died, and he doesn’t think he cares to. Mick says he was a good man and a hero, so maybe he was, and maybe that’s all that matters. Maybe he doesn’t need to know anything else.

“It was the same for us,” Leo finally says, and Mick shoots him a look that’s neither questioning nor curious, but his attention seems to have been caught. Leo shrugs and continues, “in the way that it could be. We couldn’t get married on our Earth, but we were partners, too. Until he died. I met Ray not long after he died, and that was how I got through it. That’s the thing, Mick. You don’t let despair consume you, you just find something else to live for.”

“Yeah,” Mick grunts, like he knows. He doesn’t roll his eyes at the advice, doesn’t even seem to care that Leo gave it, despite how he’s reacted any other time Leo tried to offer advice. “I found a Ray, too.”

Together, their eyes find Ray Palmer, who is standing with Nate, and they’re talking about something that’s causing Ray’s eyes to light up. They’re both laughing, and Leo tilts his head, exhaling an, “Ah. Well, I think everyone needs one at some point in their life. He seems like a good guy.”

“He’s an insufferable idiot,” Mick corrects, finishing the last of the liquid in his bottle, but Leo recognizes the look in his eyes. The same look his Mick used to have when it came to him. He wonders if he should be sad, but this isn’t his Mick, and that’s abundantly clear. And now, they both have their own Rays, and things seem to be working out. 

In their way.

Leo likes this team, he decides to himself, and he thinks he’d prefer to stay on it for a just a little while. It doesn’t fix the things he’s lost, and his hopefully future husband isn’t here with him. And it’s definitely not his Mick, and he’s not their Leonard, but he is Leo Snart, and this is Mick Rory, and they have each other again in some way, which seems to be all that matters, he thinks. Some of those old, lingering holes are starting to not ache as much as they had in the past, which was part of the reason Leo had wanted to come. No, he can’t fix what they lost, or what he lost, and he wouldn’t want to, because nothing would be the same if he did. But this, this is progress. People say time heals all wounds, and maybe, just maybe, that might actually be true.


End file.
